Opposition and independent MPs may be firing a barrage of questions at government ministers but not all of them are getting through, writes Gamal Essam El-Din Opposition and independent MPs accused Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour of undermining the supervisory role of the People's Assembly last week when he refused eight interpellations -- questions that must be answered by cabinet ministers. The anger of Muslim Brotherhood and leftist MPs was not assuaged when Sorour told them the reasons why out of the 65 interpellations submitted since the People Assembly's new winter parliamentary session began on 7 November he had judged eight to be inappropriate. "I ordered that a sub-committee be formed to investigate the basis of these interpellations and whether they are corroborated by any supporting evidence," said Sorour. Eight of them, he continued, were based on nothing beyond press cuttings. "These paper clippings are not backed by any substantial evidence and to allow them to be the basis of interpellations would turn the assembly into an arena for the exchange of accusations and counter-accusations." Sorour went on to decry the habit of some MPs to submit questions simply to boost their own standing or settle personal scores. Opposition and independent MPs were further dismayed when Sorour ordered that all the interpellations directed at individual cabinet ministers be discussed in a single session, and that the assembly would meet once a month for the discussion of interpellations. The Brotherhood's parliamentary spokesman Hussein Ibrahim responded by accusing Sorour and his sub-committee of strangling the assembly's supervisory role. "As most of the members of the sub- committee belong to the ruling National Democratic Party [NDP], they see their job as controlling opposition MPs and offering protection to the government in the face of embarrassing questions," said Ibrahim. "Interpellations are the assembly's main supervisory tool and there should be adequate time for discussing them in detail," he continued, pointing out that restricting the discussion of several interpellations addressed to a single minister to one session would allow 10 minutes, at most, for each question. Brotherhood MP Ali Laban insisted one of the interpellations he had submitted was rejected unfairly. "My question was backed up with documents implicating officials in the sale of 17,000 pilgrimage visas to Saudi Arabia on the black market," said Laban. Likewise, Brotherhood MP Saad El-Husseini said that despite evidence corroborated by Central Auditing Agency (CAA) reports, his question had been rejected because it was potentially embarrassing to the NDP's real estate tycoons. "These people have exploited their position in the NDP to gain large plots of land around Cairo at cheap prices," accuses El-Hussein. Zeinab Radwan, the assembly's deputy speaker and head of the sub- committee, repeated that Laban and El-Husseini's interpellations were based on erroneous press reports. "The sub-committee has not told Laban and El-Hussein that their interpellations have been rejected," she said, "merely that more substantial evidence was required before such serious accusations could be made." Brotherhood and leftist MPs, however, say Sorour's orders will have no effect on their determination to submit yet more interpellations and have promised to build on their recent barrage of questions intended to spotlight corruption at senior levels. After accusing the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif last week of offering NDP MPs bribes of LE250,000 in return for rubber- stamping the state budget and other controversial laws, this week they accused the government of providing the same MPs with a free visa to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage, and a sum of LE20,000 to "help towards costs". Brotherhood MP Hamdi Hassan claimed he had a complete list of NDP MPs who received free pilgrimage visas, travel expenses, air tickets and stays in five-star hotels. Hassan demanded Sorour open the file on "such a flagrant example of misuse of public funds and breach of government". Hassan estimates that these, and similar, payments to NDP parliamentarians have cost the taxpayer in excess of LE200 million. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif denies opposition charges that the government offers NDP MPs bribes. "What the government offers is financial assistance, and it applies to both majority and opposition MPs." El-Sherif explained that under former prime minister Atef Ebeid a plan to allocate LE1 million to each village in Egypt for development projects was set in motion. "This plan was later changed in favour of providing MPs with set amounts to spend on local projects provided the projects received government approval," said El-Sherif. In the meantime, opposition MPs have vowed to step up their three- month campaign against the sale of Banque du Caire to foreign investors. Mahmoud Abaza, leader of the liberal-oriented Wafd Party, said his interpellation about Banque du Caire should be discussed next week given that the sale process is due to be completed by the end of the month. Abaza and other MPs have appealed to Sorour to give priority to questions about Banque du Caire, arguing that failure to do so would be evidence of pro-government bias. Some MPs are demanding an investigation into lending practices that saddled Banque du Caire with a huge portfolio of non-performing loans, while others argue that the bank should be publicly subsidised to save 2,100 jobs and prevent what they claim is a strategic asset from being controlled by non-Egyptians.
